Final days in Bali

So we got up early in the morning to rent a moped from our hostel (Senem Beach Inn), and after a nice Gado-Gado breakfast at Made Warung's I started driving towards Sanur Beach (rather than try and drive directly to Ubud through the chaotic city of Denpasar).

Although the road signs at first were promising, it didn't take long before I was completely lost. Every street looked identical, with no identifiable landmarks to get your bearings and very little signposting or street name signs, so trying to get to the beach was a nightmare. After literally an hour of driving around in circles, and down laneways and side streets I eventually found a place that I could identify on our crappy tourist map (thank god for KFC!). So once parked at the beachside, I had a very long and relaxing walk along the beachfront to try and relieve some of the stress of the drive.

It's a nice beachfront area, although very quite and mainly made up of expensive looking resorts, so I'd reckon any time spent there would be pretty boring really. The sea was very calm too, with the ocean breakers crashing well off-shore, so in fact this resulted in the sea being a bit dirty in places.

So after about 2 hours walking up and back along Sanur beach it was back on the bike and off to Ubud. Luckily this time I didn't get lost at all, and so we arrived in mid-afternoon. I found a highly recommended restaurant (Warung Ibu Oka) very easily, and although it was really packed, we managed to grab 2 seats at a table for 5. The place is famous for serving a single dish - suckling pig, and so the tiny menu only offered a few variations. Myself and Sarah both had the 'special', and it was really fantastic. The place is a real local institution, so the food was really cheap too, so we got completely stuffed there!

Then I drove round to check out the local Blanco Museum, but they had a cheeky admission charge, so instead we checked out the famous Ubud Sacred Monkey Forest. I'd been here before, and it's still a great little spot for a stroll, although not as big as I remember. There were millions of monkeys around of course, and they were entertaining as always. After the forest we drove through the town a bit more, and stopped off for coffee and milkshakes at the very stylish Three Monkeys cafe, which backs onto a gorgeously lush paddy field.

I wanted to give myself plenty of time to drive back to Kuta before dark, so we set off around 5pm. But not too long into the drive I was totally lost again. Asking various clueless locals for directions was fruitless as always, but eventually I found my way onto a familiar major road. But once we hit Kuta I got totally lost again (and by now it was just getting dark). Myself and Enda had walked around Kuta a fair bit, but I couldn't recognise anything I drove past. Again, just after driving around and around I eventually spotted some familiar landmarks, and I made my way to a road along which I knew how to get home. But of course, the traffic was now totally clogged up, and I was getting worried about running out of fuel.

But eventually, about 7:30pm, we made it back to our hostel, with the bike running on fumes I reckon. I think it was probably the single most frustrating day of driving I have ever had anywhere, and I was mighty relieved to get home. We just grabbed a beer and a bite to eat at our hostel and went to bed, meaning we'd have to spend the following day sorting out where to go next, and how to get there.